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Puerto Rico

The Army Corp of Engineers and the US disaster program is missing a golden opportunity in Puerto Rico.
Find out how fast you can bring up a totally devastated electrical grid.
Unless...they can't.

If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
~ President Ulysses S. Grant

Oh they will get it back up with time. They will probably use this opportunity to get power into places that have never had it. I knew a guy in the Army that was from back in the hills of Puerto Rico and his family did not have power in the 1970s.

If they handle this right it could be the best thing that ever happened to PR. Everything is gone so everything has to be rebuilt. Full employment, complete rebuild, tremendous injection of funds into the economy, everything new. PR could become THE dream destination of the Caribbean at the end of this, if it is the first island to restore services.

The Island is a unique situation since all other recoveries have been assisted by thousands of utility workers from neighboring areas invading the disaster area like a swarm of worker ants and going non-stop until the utility was repaired.

The worst thing they could do would be have a department or division of the government in charge of this work! Customer service, cost effectiveness or meeting deadlines is not on their list of strong points.

Even if they decide not to turn the recovery into a game on Survival Island, and even if it takes a couple of years to get power into the back country, it is still a testament to the TEOTWAWKI believers that anticipate once things go down over a large area the 'dark ages" will last forever and all technology will be lost.

I have not read anywhere on the conditions of their generation facilities.

The Army Corp of Engineers and the US disaster program is missing a golden opportunity in Puerto Rico.
Find out how fast you can bring up a totally devastated electrical grid.
Unless...they can't.

You think? Guess the folks I work with should just head home, and I should unpack my bags. Hard part is, most teams are already either in Texas or Florida, and drove there. The transportation for this one is just a bit of a challenge. But then again, I have not ever done a thing in the disaster recover realm before, and I have never worked for days on end either repairing or creating an electrical grid in a disaster area (This is sarcasm).
Don't believe everything the MSM tells you. I can't elaborate, as I really only know my very small part in this one. I do know large wheels are in motion, and will gain traction. This is the perfect example on why people need to have a personal plan, and localities need to have a local plan. If you don't have the capability to accept these relief folks and supplies (and distribute them) in place. It will need to be created, before many supplies and repairs can get out to needed areas.

Have Lights? Thank a Lineman!
"Being prepared is sometimes inconvenient, but not being prepared is always inconvenient." - Fred Choate

The truth is the news almost gets nothing right. I have a buddy still here in Florida that came down for Pike Electric from Kentucky> the news said linemen from as far away as Tennessee. KY is a little north Tennessee. lol

They upgrade a lot of power grid stuff after each storm. So, during Wilma we lost most of the main poles on Powerline Road. They changed them to all metal poles. Part of the reason it took half as long to restore power to almost 3 times as many people as lost power during Wilma. I'd say thank a Lineman!

Would you believe that there are 10,000 shipping containers of food and water at the San Juan port.

At first the bottle neck was declared due to impassable roads, but that has been refuted and the actual problem seems to be that the Teamsters Union can not find enough Union drivers to get the trucks out. Most of them seem to have left the island.

It seems that neither the Governor or the Mayor of San Juan will suspend the requirements for Union membership to drive a truck during this relief effort.

Political favors over rule the need for response to the disaster.

Nothing like a Mayor screaming she is getting no disaster aid while standing in the middle of a warehouse crammed full of supplies.

I fear we have another Katrina situation here, where a corrupt political machine is waiting for their pay off before releasing aid to the people. They are railing against the Federal system while at the same time blocking that system and its efforts.

If this were Texas or Florida there would be 250,000 rednecks in 4wd pickup trucks lined up at the gates of the port to get the supplies out to the people in the back country.

And the first guy that took something out of a box there would be 20 rednecks breathing down his shirt collar telling him to put it back. NOW. Say what you want about country folk but they have a gifted sense of right and wrong that is unsurpassed.

Ya know............if you are stupid/ignorant/political/ideological (pick whichever fits) enough to be calling out the President on the lack of aid you are receiving, you should probably not pick a photo op standing in front of tons and tons of aid that you have received.

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